Have a look at Gorilla repair tape, that’s what I’ve used on mine, it’s thick stuff and relatively cheap. I got a roll off Amazon for about £5

Commenting to bookmark as I too struggle with anxiety and reading through the comments on here are very useful and something to reflect back on.

I have quite large hands too and also prefer skinnier grips, I use burgtec bartender grips but am also a fan of hope grips that I’ve used in the past

If it helps, I too have a frame that uses headset parts 7 and J (hightower LT) and they just sit in the frame, no press required. As mentioned, the crown race is also just push fit, it has a slit in it to allow it to be pushed on.

Shermer, I’ll send you a message if that’s okay?

Book marking also, I have been having problems with anxiety as of recent and that’s stopped me from riding or getting on a bike for quite some time. I tore my ACL in December so haven’t ridden since mid December anyway. I can relate to having no motivation to ride but my anxiety is the reason behind it and am more worried about something happening to me.

I did a season a few years ago in tignes. I was using SLX m675’s on a downhill bike, I was riding maybe 6 hours a day, everyday for about 6 weeks and never suffered a problem with them, didn’t even have to bleed them or change pads. If that’s anything to go by angway

I was facing the same choice but went for the Arch over flow, mainly down to weight and that they’d still be perfectly fine with a 2.5″ tyre

What mount are you using on the front? Heard a Shimano mount doesn’t work but are there any alternatives to the hope mount as they’re £15 but will pay if need be.

Sign up to and use top cashback, think it’s about 2%, if it’s a purchase of £500 that’s about £10 cashback

I don’t know their exact whereabouts but plenty of the dudes of hazzard stuff up there, think you start from the north face car park. Have you looked into kinlochleven? About half an hour drive south of fort William (towards Glencoe) and once again, plenty there

There was a big group (I wasn’t one of them but am a student) of students went for a ride around that way on Saturday, could be one of them lost it. I’ll ask about in the uni riding group and see if there’s contact with other uni’s groups.

I’ve used some of the works components adaptors before to run a 24mm shimano (saint) cranks with a 30mm sram bb. They essentially just push into the bearing and that’s it, had no problems running them on a dh bike.

Surely ad block, a chrome extension, has been doing this for years anyway? mine’s blocked a total of 255,000…

I had a 2015 / mk3 one but sold it due to injury. It was hands down the best bike i’d owned/ ridden, as mentioned it is a bit slow uphill but i’m pretty unfit anyway so probably just as likely down to that. Coming from downhill bikes in the past it felt so confidence inspiring and fast, think I only bottomed it out a couple of times it had that good a suspension platform, lets hope the hightower LT is as good…

I’ve a magic mary with the soft addix compound or whatever the purple stripe is. Used once, still got injection mould bits, £25 ;)

Otherwise specialized butchers are generally okay and relatively cheap or bonty tyres can normally be found

Atlaz, we went out last year and we got first lifts without being part of the PPDS as we were just heading out to ride rather than ride in the event

All usual spares have been mentioned but amount of brake pads you take will depend on how quickly you think you’ll get through them. Last year we went for a week and I didn’t change my pads for instance

Who was that officerfriendly? I work in a shop and to us on staff pricing they’re more than that.

Yeah, I imagine the calipers will be different, just like SLX and XT calipers are different. I hadn’t looked up the price of the new deores but think there seems to be some good sales on SLX’s at the moment either way

I had a pair of m7000’s or new slx if you like, they were really good and never let me down, always tended to use slx’s over xt’s mainly because the bite point adjustment on shimano’s doesn’t do anything and that they’re near enough similar to slx’s otherwise. I work in a shop and we seem to get a lot of m8000’s back but that’s maybe because they’re quite common on higher spec bikes and popular with customers.

Have you had a look at the m6000’s? Shimano’s newest deore offering. They’re basically m7000/m8000 levers just without the bite adjust or tool free lever adjust. Not used them myself but they do look smart

If anyone is still after a code, give me a message. In theory still have 5 left

Ended up with a OnePlus 5t, still getting to grips with it vs my 6s, some things I prefer on the iPhone but a good few more on the OnePlus. Love just how quick it is! As mentioned before by someone, I too prefer the keyboard on the iPhone but we’ll see how this one goes

I also have one that runs until the 31st. I work there so maybe runs longer. Can be used 10 times. Email in profile or ‘PM’ me etc

I had a 6 plus in the past that finally broke due to being bent, I never really had it it my backpocket nor did I ever sit on it. Was always in my front pocket but still managed to bend. My 6s has been fine. Just wondering if there have been any similar issues with the 1+ 5t because of it’s large size…off to google..

I’d be going from a 6s to a one plus 5t although as I say i’ll probably hold on to the iphone for a while just in case I don’t get on with the 1+. The 1+’s are £500 retail but i’ll get 5% student discount so makes it a little better.

And there’s a recent post on Ride Sheffield about Airdrop bikes being broken in to and bikes nicked. I’m also in Sheffield for uni so will keep an eye out for anything dodgy! I won’t be ride much over the next 6 months due to injury but if I see anything I’ll stick a crutch through the wheel!

Sounds like oneplus seems a popular choice in terms of the android market but I suppose you wouldn’t go too far wrong with any android phone these days.

That’s interesting to know Doris, i’ll look into that, I never really used Imessage anyway just simple texts. I was hoping to keep a hold of my iphone or give it to my mum unless I was desperate for the money as they’re not worth thaaat much anyway.

Looks like i’ve done well starting this thread off and been lucky with who replied, I plan on actually changing to a one plus 5T. How do/did you both like the OnePlus? I’ve had a bit of a fiddle but no long term use. Searching google the reviews all seem to be really good and comparable (and better) to the iphone 8 at a fraction of the price. I use a windows laptop so connectivity should be pretty easy between the 2.

Never played Gran turismo 5 but gran turismo 6 is really good, best one i’ve played. Played dirt 1 through to 4 (on the ps4) and dirt 3 could probably be had on the cheap. They’re the ones I mainly played on the ps3 or 360. Not too much help i suppose but the next game up in the series from what you have is always a good option.

Thanks for the more in depth reply. That’s interesting to hear though, i’ve not had a proper read up on them yet but did hear good things about the hightower and similar about the LT. As I say, I’ve ridden the rocket max and that did feel rather nice but would be interesting to get a recent, not quite back to back, ride of each. I’m similar to yourself in terms of a preference for descending so would prefer something similar to that. I’ve just sold my nomad which was very capable at going downhill, I just won’t be riding for nigh on 6 months (torn my ACL) so thought i’d save it getting covered in dust and also a chance to look into something new. I’ll definitely try test ride the hightower and the rocket max again, I just don’t know when it’ll be.

chakaping – How tall are you? I’m about 5′ 10/11″ and found the large was a very nice fit, maybe depends how you like the bike to feel though.

I’m interested to know what you didn’t like about the Hightower LT (to choose the rocket max over it). I’ll be in the market for a new bike before too long and was looking at a hightower LT as I recently sold my nomad.

I test rode the rocket max at Lady Cannings a few months ago and then the test loop at calver a few days later and it is a very capable bike and rides exceptionally well! However, I could probably build a Hightower CC for not too much more than a Rocket max.

The stems caps sound pretty cool and a good idea.

Just a short and sweet message as it’s late but I was told (without an MRI though) that it’s a grade 3. I couldn’t stand on it, I tried and fell straight over

Thanks for the support, I’ve been told by a friend that it’s best to go private as he was back riding bikes after 3 months! I’m still hobbling about just now as it was only yesterday. I am 21 so the doctor seemed quite keen for me to have surgery due to having quite a lot of a sporting ‘career’ left, or that’s what I could make out through the broken English.

Why is it you ended up seeing someone after 7 years? was it because it happened again?

I should have mentioned i’m out skiing and am heading back to the UK tomorrow, surgery is looking imminent to be honest. Current status is that I can’t stand unsupported so swimming will probably be out of the question just now.

I am still in val but as I say I leave tomorrow, he said that in France they would operate so imagine it will be the same back in England, will need to go and be reassessed when home but probably won’t get seen to for quite a while now

Really good, plenty of it! Been snowing today so plenty of powder about too!

Im actually in Val d’sere just now for the week and am using a montane extreme jacket. With temperatures being around -10 without windchill even on the lower slopes I feel plenty warm everywhere I’ve been so far. That’s with a base layer, t shirt, sweatshirt and the montane extreme jacket. To be honest all those layers is probably a little much, jacket performs well though. I use the breast pocket for my lift pass and don’t have any problems when scanning

Dirt 4 is really good if you’re in to racing / rally games. I quite like ‘Steep’ too, it’s a ski/ board game but can use wingsuit and glide too.

The 5 10s I ordered on tuesday arrived today, no problems with them, just need to send one pair back now as I bought 2 pairs to compare whilst they were cheap.